Departmental academic review

Inter-disciplinary Research
James Irlam brought together a workshop in 2012 on Inter-disciplinary & Trans-disciplinary (IDTD) Research in the Faculty to facilitate the Directorate’s role as a cross-cutting unit within the Dean’s office whose purpose was to play a role in developing IDTD research and practice as well as promote collaborative research within the university and beyond, within the context of the Faculty Strategic Plan for Research 2013-2020 and the university-wide IDTD Task Team Review.
Strategic questions that arose from the workshop included: Should the goals of IDTD cascade down from the Faculty Strategic plan; should one grow seeds which could be strengthened and become the basis for major research initiatives; should space be made for creating the conditions for new ideas and new questions which are the hallmark of IDTD research; should one work with the converted or try and grow the pool of researchers; should one promote IDTD as an approach or rather through particular issues or signature themes?
Ideas for promoting IDTD included: Encouraging participation via journal clubs and working groups; defining one’s own work; sharing and disseminating work with colleagues; encouraging IDTD publishing; taking on supervision beyond one’s own discipline; creating opportunities to provoke discussions; examine institutional values which hinder IDTD; and promote critical pedagogy as a way of thinking beyond disciplines. The Faculty could encourage IDTD by: Creating an annual IDTD research award; encouraging course conveners to participate in IDTD graduate programmes; developing short courses to teach IDTD postgraduate skills; coach students about the difficulties of IDTD; draw up list of successful grant proposals on Vula to identify what collaborative research is underway at UCT; train supervisors on how to supervise and examine IDTD theses; train staff and students on methodology; change existing protocols so that IDTD is encouraged; create spaces to think and talk about research approaches; incentivize IDTD through funding; lobby NRF to fund IDTD; host a seminar series; make it more visible within the Faculty; and include IDTD in performance appraisal systems.
The statistics from around the world show that the output of those universities that have deliberately created an enabling environment for inter-disciplinary research, has increased exponentially, as compared to those who continue ploughing the same furrows within their disciplinary boundaries. Although a lot of the work done at the PHCD is inter-disciplinary, this is not the case for most departments, and one of our core functions is to initiate and stimulate this kind of thinking within the Faculty.